shreyas-bangera/smarttube-phone

What it is

StreamTube adapts the SmartTube Android TV client to phone screens. According to the README, it keeps SmartTube's playback, sign-in, SponsorBlock and settings engine but replaces the TV remote interface with a touch UI: a portrait player, in-app mini player, Shorts, comments, downloads and background play SmartTube repository. It is an independent project and claims no affiliation with SmartTube's developer, YouTube or Google.

The app is aimed at Android phone users who want an ad-free YouTube client that works without Google Play services. The interface mimics the official app with bottom tabs for Home, Shorts, Subscriptions and You, plus topic chips and watch/save actions in the player features.

Install and first run

1. On an Android 8.0+ phone with an ARM processor, open the latest arm64 APK. Older 32-bit devices can use the arm32 build; emulators and Chromebooks can use the universal build requirements.
2. Once the download finishes, tap the notification, and allow your browser to install unknown apps when Android prompts.
3. Tap Install. Play Protect's warning for non-Play Store apps is acknowledged with More details and Install anyway install steps.
4. Open StreamTube. Home shows popular videos immediately; signing in is optional.

To sign in, open the You tab, tap Sign in, then use the displayed code on Google's device activation page. The README says the password is entered only on Google's site, not in the app sign-in guide.

Updates and builds

The app includes an updater under You → Settings → Check for updates, which downloads and installs new builds update guide. Early builds had signing-key problems: builds 39–51 cannot self-update, and builds 38 or older must be uninstalled before installing a newer APK. Source builds use JDK 17 and the Android SDK, with the stphone Gradle flavor and a patch applied to the MediaServiceCore submodule; the README publishes via GitHub Actions build notes.

Constraints

• Android 8.0 or newer; the in-app mini player requires Android 11, and older versions fall back to a floating window.
• Downloads are saved as MP4 or M4A under Download/StreamTube; live streams cannot be downloaded watching a video.
• Background playback needs notification permission and, on some phone brands, unrestricted battery usage troubleshooting.
• Network issues are reported around VPNs, Private DNS or busy shared networks; signing in is the suggested fallback for YouTube's bot checks.
• Privacy: the app states it connects to YouTube, GitHub for updates and SponsorBlock when enabled, and stores the Google access token on the phone privacy.
• License: MIT LICENSE.

HotRepo's take

The project appeared on HotRepo's new-project list on 2026-11-13, with a 90-minute growth window showing 9 new stars and 1 new fork, reaching 110 stars and 11 forks. The sample is too short to infer a trend: the repository was created only six days earlier, and no GitHub daily rank is recorded. Its distinguishing point is the SmartTube engine paired with a phone-native UI, but the release binaries are prebuilt APKs, so readers should treat GitHub Actions signing and build provenance as part of the evaluation rather than an implied guarantee.